THE POWER OF WORDS




They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

Have you ever noticed that some teachers and preachers speak with total confidence and authority whereas most do not? What is the difference? It is experiential knowledge. Their knowledge doesn’t come from having read the Good Book but from living it! However, no matter how powerful their sermons might be, and how transformational, they cannot match the power and authority of someone who walked upon this earth two thousand years ago, because he WAS power and authority. His name was Jesus. 

When he declared something, it happened. He said to the storm, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm (Mark 4:39). He said to a little girl who was dead, “Talitha cum,” which means, “Little girl, get up!” And immediately the girl got up (Mark 5:41). He said to the leper, “Be made clean!” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed (Matthew 8:3). And here, in today’s story, we see him command an unclean spirit, “Be silent and come out of him!: And the unclean spirit came out.

But there are a few more lessons to be learned from this story. Notice the sequence of events described in this story. An evil spirit in a man begins this conversation with Jesus. It is part challenge, part fear. Now look at Jesus’ method. First, he seizes the opportunity to help somebody. A problem arose and he took care of it. Decisively. There was no hesitation, no prevarication. He handled it without fuss. Second, he doesn’t make a big production out of it. He doesn’t yell and rant and scream, knock the demon out, kick him a bit, and then cast him into hell. He just says, “Be silent and get out.” And the demon was out. And, third, he doesn’t go about bragging about what he had done. 

As followers of Christ, we want to live our lives in imitation of him. We are, after all, created in his image and likeness. Consequently, we need to follow his example. We also need to remember that if his words have power, so do ours. Scripture tells us that “death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits” (Proverbs 18:21) Our words have the power over life and death, yet we take the things we say very casually. We curse people, we slander them, we say idiotic things in anger.

Let our words be kind and gentle and tender instead. Let them be life-giving, not life-taking.

And we will also see amazing things happen as a result.

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